A sufficient condition for the existence of a principal eigenvalue for nonlocal diffusion equations with applications

Considerable work has gone into studying the properties of nonlocal diffusion equations. The existence of a principal eigenvalue has been a significant portion of this work. While there are good results for the existence of a principal eigenvalue equations on a bounded domain, few results exist for unbounded domains. On bounded domains, the Krein–Rutman theorem on Banach spaces is a common tool for showing existence. This article shows that generalized Krein–Rutman can be used on unbounded domains and that the theory of positive operators can serve as a powerful tool in the analysis of nonlocal diffusion equations. In particular, a useful sufficient condition for the existence of a principal eigenvalue is given.